A white bat hung from the ceiling. A bat the size of a man. I blurred for the front door, but it beat me there, dropping in front of me just as I was about to grab the handle. I jerked my hand back before I touched the hideous monster. It had the body of a man, naked and muscular, with large wings spread out from its outstretched arms to below the knee. Its bald head was also that of a man’s, but with pointed ears, sharp-edged cheekbones, and fangs. Its irises were pitch black, but a green light shone in the pupils. Grayish-white, leathery looking skin covered it from head to toe, not a single hair to be seen.

“Like what you see, puppet?” it asked me, and I gasped with surprise that it spoke. Teased.

I spun and ran, blurring for the back door. But the thing was faster than me, soaring over me, and swooping me up into talon-like fingers. I kicked and thrashed and tried to wriggle myself free from its hold, but it was so much stronger than me, even with my vampire strength. We crashed through the two-story Palladian windows at the back of the house and immediately climbed higher in the sky, veering to the right to avoid the mountainside. I opened my mouth to scream, but I suddenly felt like a hand had clapped over it, something invisible silencing me. No matter how hard I arched and thrashed, the beast kept its grip, its claws digging into my shoulders as we soared over town. The icy air bit at my face and hands.

Town square passed under us, to our right, and the lights of emergency vehicles sped below, headed in the opposite direction. I tried yelling at them to turn around, but couldn’t. The acrid odor of fire and smoke came faint on the air as we traveled away from the source.

We began descending on the far side of town as we approached the east mountain. The thing expertly avoided crashing through the tree branches before coming in for a landing at the back of a log cabin at the end of a cul-de-sac. I knew this house. I’d remembered it one of my first days here, although I hadn’t known why then. But now I did. I’d been here many times.

This was the Rocas’ home.

The thing released me several feet from the ground, and my feet had barely touched the wooden deck in front of the back door before I lunged for the edge. But a powerful hand grabbed me by the back of the neck and jerked me inside. Another hand gripped my upper arm hard enough to bruise it, and the person behind me shoved me forward, making me stumble. They kept me upright, though, pushing me until I started walking, through the familiar kitchen and headed for the basement door. They practically carried me by the neck and arm down the stairs into the dark cellar, unrelenting regardless of how hard I bucked and kicked, always missing my mark.

A second pair of hands wrapped around my wrists and lifted my arms above my head and out. I snarled and snapped at them, but they remained out of reach. Cold metal replaced the long, bony fingers, clamping around my wrists. The sound of metal grated against metal as my arms were lifted higher until my feet left the ground. More metal cuffed my ankles, and my legs were also pulled apart. I jerked against the bindings to no avail. A bright light was suddenly turned on, momentarily blinding my sensitive eyes. Once they adjusted, I found Mrs. Roca, wearing black dress pants and a yellow silk blouse, standing in front of me, and I was surprised I even recognized her.

I remembered thinking she was beautiful, just as beautiful as my own mom, but that wasn’t quite the word I’d use now. She was vamped out—her eyes bloodshot, her skin blanched and veiny looking, her fangs protruding between her lips—but her beauty could still be seen. Only now, her pale skin pulled taut over the sharper edges of her bones. Her lashes weren’t as long and thick as they’d been before, something I’d always envied a little of all the Rocas. Her hair wasn’t as thick and glossy as I remembered either. Not the jet-black it used to be. What happened to her?

A whimper from the corner beyond her caught my attention. My eyes bugged when they saw my sister and brother chained up just like me on the other side of the room. Blood dripped from Gabe’s lower lip, and Aurelia’s clothes were shredded. Fear shone in their wide eyes. I thrashed and fought against the metal cuffs, but they only dug in deeper. I tried to scream, but the invisible muffle remained.

A movement to my left brought the man-bat into view as it moved closer to my siblings. I tried to scream and fight again, ignoring the pain of the cuff’s bite into my skin. I just needed to get to them, free them before that monster hurt them even more.

“Where’s the witch?” Mrs. Roca demanded.

“She wasn’t there,” the creature said, and before my eyes, its wings disappeared and it morphed into Mr. Roca. Except a thinner, much more muscular and younger Mr. Roca than I remembered. He could almost be mistaken for any of his sons, if not for the glowing irises, now a lime green instead of black.

Mrs. Roca’s green eyes narrowed as she glared at me, but spoke to her husband, and as her vamp traits faded, I noted another difference in her. Her eyes used to be grayer. Moroi eyes, as Xandru had said. Now they were a brighter green. Almost as bright as her husband’s. “Did Adelaide see you?”

“No. She was gone before I got there,” he answered as he pulled a pair of black jeans off a work bench scattered with various tools and, I couldn’t help but notice, some mighty long, sharp-looking knives. I immediately averted my eyes to not give away that I’d seen them while I tried to figure out how to break out of these cuffs and reach the knives before they caught me. My vampire abilities were not an advantage with them. Come on, Kales, think!

“You damn well better hope so,” Mrs. Roca replied to her husband, “or she’ll have the Court here in no time. I will not watch them put you down.”

Mr. Roca buttoned his jeans, then pulled on a dark gray button-down shirt. He stared at me as he began buttoning it. “Nor I you. We’ll take care of this, Isabella. Just like I promised. Now, get the girl.”

Aurelia’s eyes widened with fear, her body thrashing against the restraints, her cries muffled like mine. I once again tried to fight my way to freedom as Mrs. Roca approached my sister, and tears filled my eyes. But then she passed Aurelia and Gabe and disappeared around a corner, a smirk on her face. Bitch!

A moment later she returned, gently leading a young woman about my age dressed in only a satin teddy. Her glassy blue eyes wandered around the room as her finger twirled in a long, blond lock. Mrs. Roca walked over to me and beckoned at the girl.

“Over here, dear,” she said with a kind voice, and the blonde followed until she stood in front of me. Mrs. Roca gave me a tight grin. “We brought you a present, Michaela.” She said it like Mammie had, dropping the hard K. “How long has it been since you’ve had human blood straight from the vein?”

My eyes widened, and I shook my head. No! I tried to scream. It’d been more than two years, when I’d first been turned.

“Come now, dear, just a taste.” She placed her hand on the girl’s head and tilted it to the side, exposing her throat. The older woman blew across the girl’s skin, engulfing me with her delicious scent. My tongue automatically swept over my lips as my gaze fell on her prominent carotid. The throbbing artery called to my thirst.

But I knew what just a taste did. I knew there was no such thing as “just a taste,” not when direct from the vein. I’d almost killed last time I’d wanted just a taste of the fresh, warm blood. My mouth watered, and I was nearly panting.

“Here, I’ll start,” Mrs. Roca said, and she vamped out before bending over the girl’s throat and latching on.

The woman flinched but otherwise didn’t respond. She was under compulsion.

Mrs. Roca came up and licked the blood off her lips, but left the wound gushing. “Hurry, or I might take her all for myself.”

She shoved the woman up against me, her bleeding throat level with my nose and mouth. I turned my head, refusing. Mr. Roca suddenly stood behind me, his large hand on my head, pressing me toward the girl. My lips touched her throat, the deliciousness filled me, and I couldn’t help it. Just a taste. I licked the warm, thick liquid from my lips, my eyes fell closed, and for a moment, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. I needed more. Now.

I lunged forward with a sudden thirst that felt like fire in my throat. My lips closed over her wound, my fangs sank into her skin to widen it, and I sucked her delicious, sweet and salty life force, my eyes rolling back with bliss.

“That’s our girl. Drink up. Then only a couple more to go,” Mr. Roca cooed, and at first, the sound was soothing, encouraging, but then something flipped inside me.

I jerked back. No!

“Drink!” Mrs. Roca spat as she shoved the girl in my face again. I shook my head violently, refusing. Her eyes glowed green, and she growled at me. Then she went in for the kill herself.

“No, darling,” Mr. Roca said as he pulled the blonde out of his wife’s embrace as though she were a ragdoll. Mrs. Roca hissed at him, and I thought she was about to pounce. He held up a hand and shook a finger at her. “This one’s Michaela’s. Remember the plan. You can have yours later. After we take care of this for the kids.”

Mrs. Roca growled lowly, but backed off.

“Now come on, Michaela, drink up,” he said to me, once again holding the girl in front of me. I pressed my lips together and turned my head. “Well, I’ll just leave her right here. You won’t be able to resist for long.”

He let go of the girl, and she collapsed to the floor. Her eyes fluttered closed as she fell into a deep sleep. Her wound still seeped, and flames licked up my throat at the smell. He eyed me for a long moment.

“Let’s have a talk, why don’t we?” he said, and he made a gesture in front of me. The strange muffled feeling disappeared. The whimper I couldn’t control because of the burn finally could be heard.

“Why are you doing this?” My voice was choked, raspy, as everything within me yearned for the girl at my feet. For her blood. “What did I do to you?”

He laughed, but no humor filled the creepy sound. “You mean, what did you to do us. All of us. My whole damn family, if I don’t put a stop to it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t done anything!”

He growled in my face. “You fucking exist!”

I flinched as though he’d slapped me.

“You went and turned yourself when you weren’t supposed to, not giving a fuck what you were doing to the rest of us. Not just your family, but mine, too.” His facial features began to morph back into the beast. “You did this!”

“I . . . I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

He glared at me with green eyes. “You’re making us go strigoi. That curse on you, on your family—it’s ruining us, too. But I won’t let it. Mrs. Roca and I will deal with it, but I won’t let you get our kids killed by the Court. I’ll make sure it’s you instead.”

“Now drink,” Mrs. Roca ordered, gesturing at the woman at my feet.

“I will not.”

She laughed. “And you pretend not to understand. You know exactly what will happen.”

“Why the hell do you want me to kill her? What did she do?”

Mrs. Roca shrugged. “She existed. She was convenient, left in one of our cabins while her boyfriend went out skiing. We have him, too. He’ll be your next kill.”

“What? No!”

“Oh, yes, dear. You will. You will start to go strigoi, the Court will kill you, and this damned curse will be over with. Before it takes our children.”

“What the fuck is strigoi?” I yelled.

They both fell silent and stared at me. Mrs. Roca tilted her head. “You really don’t know?”

I didn’t answer, thinking it was pretty damn obvious.

“It’s what happens to moroi when they kill one too many humans,” Mr. Roca said with a thrill in his voice. “It’s what’s happening to me, to Mrs. Roca. You saw what I turn into. But that’s barely the beginning. Moroi are mortals. Fully turned strigoi are immortal. Stronger, faster, more abilities, indestructible, unstoppable.”

“Each kill makes you even thirstier,” Mrs. Roca added, and I could hear the thirst in her own voice. “Leaves you burning for the next one until you can’t fight it any longer. But each kill stains your soul, until it turns so black, you simply don’t care anymore. You become a monster, and not even the Coven can end you.”

“Why the hell would you want me to be like that?” The thought of becoming what they described scared the shit out of me, but it made no sense.

“We don’t,” Mr. Roca said, and now I was even more lost. “We just want you on your way to becoming strigoi, where it’s too late to turn back. Far enough that the Court has no choice but to put you down before you get out of control.”

“Like you are?” I spat.

“I’m not quite there, but will be soon enough,” he said with a sickening smile. “Someone fast enough with a blade might still be able to take my head. But I’m not worried about that anymore. The missus and I will be long gone before the Court knows about us. They’ll be too focused on you. And once they end you, the curse breaks, and our family won’t have to know what this is like.”

“What curse?” I asked.

“That’s enough questions. Now drink!”

“If you’re going to make me do this, you owe me a full explanation. What curse?”

“Tell her,” Mrs. Roca said. “It might motivate her, if she cares about her brother and sister at all.”

My gaze flew to Aurelia and Gabe hanging by their wrists, watching us. Both of their bodies trembled. I looked back at the Rocas. “Tell. Me.”

Mr. Roca rubbed his chin. “The curse against your family after their first offspring went strigoi.”

I blinked as I remembered the journal that I’d read just today. I must have dropped it when Mr. Roca’s bat-form kidnapped me.

“Nobody knows why, but your older brothers and cousin weren’t quite right. Never were. As soon as they were matured, they gave in to the bloodlust. They went on a murderous rampage throughout the countryside back in our Old Country. They killed dozens in only a few nights, trying to quicken the process of becoming strigoi. They wanted to be monsters, and they knew if they didn’t force the transformation fast enough, they’d only need to be decapitated to be stopped. But if they were fully changed, they thought nothing could stop them. Witches and sorcerers had to be hailed to contain them before they killed any more. It took much magic, but they were eventually eliminated. Your uncle was killed in the mayhem.”

I stared open-mouthed as my brain processed all of this. Once it did, I looked over at Aurelia and Gabe. She shook her head. She hadn’t known either. Gabe only stared, his eyes glassed over with fear. They shouldn’t be hearing this.

“Your parents and your aunt had to pay. Losing their children, and your uncle, wasn’t enough. So the magic wielders cursed them.”

“Cursed all of us,” Mrs. Roca corrected.

Her husband nodded. “Our punishment was minimal. We didn’t have children yet, so we’d had no part in the murders. But since the Rocas served the Petrans, the mages said our ties were too close. They cursed all of us to not be able to bear children for seven generations of the families who’d been massacred. And then, if your parents or your aunt had any more children, their moroi genes could not be triggered, or the whole family bloodline would die. They wanted to ensure the intense bloodlust didn’t repeat itself.”

I squinted at him. “But if the gene’s not triggered, they would die anyway.”

“The matured eventually would, but not as fast. The curse took them quickly.” He nodded toward Aurelia and Gabe. “And the curse takes the entire family.”

My breath caught. I shook my head. “No. I don’t believe you. This has nothing to do with you going strigoi. You’re just trying to distract me.”

He chuckled. “It really doesn’t have anything to do with it, does it? It shouldn’t. We didn’t do anything wrong. But then, shortly after you turned, my brother changed. We had to put him down before the Court found out. Then his wife. And now us. I don’t believe in coincidences, Michaela, but when I found out about you, the pieces came together. Your father did this somehow, but I will end it. By ending you. Now kill. The. Fucking. Woman!”

The blonde flew up off the floor in a blur, and he shoved her in my face again.

“Fuck you!” I spit out.

“She needs motivation,” Mrs. Roca said, and in a heartbeat, she stood behind Aurelia, her fangs at my sister’s throat.

“No!” I screamed. The metal cuffs tightened on my wrists and ankles, and the chains cranked on their own, pulling me tighter. I fell still. Recalling what Xandru had said, I realized why the Rocas were such good metalworkers. And something else clicked in my mind. My heart squeezed painfully, then shattered into pieces, but I couldn’t dwell on that now. I needed to protect my siblings, and I knew what I had to do. “Okay!” I yelled. “Just leave them alone. I’ll drink.”

“Good answer,” Mr. Roca said. “After all, you’ll be saving their lives, too. The curse will be lifted from them, as well.”

I nodded, sagging with defeat. “I get it. My parents . . . Mammie …” I shook my head as tears spilled. “They died too soon because of me.”

“That’s right,” Mr. Roca soothed. “But you can stop it all. You have the power to protect our children and your siblings.”

The fear in their faces gave me the motivation the Rocas had hoped for. But not for what they’d expected. As I leaned in toward the girl’s bloody throat, I redirected my bloodlust, focusing everything within me on the metal bands wrapped around my wrists and ankles. And it worked. As much as I hated what it meant, I was right. My jaw clenched against the burn, not in my throat now, but on the skin of my extremities as the metal began to melt. The moment I was free, I sprang for Aurelia and Gabe, while retargeting my energy to the knives on the work bench. They flew through the air, one toward Mr. Roca and the other toward his wife.

“What you failed to consider,” I seethed, “is that your son turned me. And he gave me your power to manipulate metal.”

Before they could react, I swished my finger, and the knives sliced across their throats.

I spun and freed Aurelia and Gabe with a simple touch to the metal, releasing the clasps. Wish I’d thought of that when I’d done my own. We ignored the thumps of falling bodies behind us and rushed for the stairs.

To find a whole family of Rocas lined up on them.